Gary Oldman gets honest about filming antagonist roles

Gary Oldman has opened up about why he stepped back from filming villain roles.

The Hollywood actor is famous for his iconic villain roles in various movies including Drexel Spivey in True Romance, Leon’s Norman Stansfield, Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, and Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space.

In a recent episode of Know Their Lines of Variety, the 67-year-old actor candidly talked about his experience of filming villain roles in movies.

“I got sort of typecast for a while I became kind of like the poster boy for the ‘rent-a-villain’,” he began. “Sort of, ‘Oh, we need a villain and we’ll get Gary.’ I don’t know how that happened, but it happened.

Revealing the reason for not doing villain roles anymore, the Academy award winner told the outlet, “It was fun for a while, but eventually, I just put a stop to it. It got a little old. But they are fun to play.”

Moreover, he noted that his role in The Fifth Element is similar Lost in Space’s role as “they’re comic villains.”

Comparing his similar on-screen character, Gary Oldman concluded. “[‘Lost in Space’] was fun, great cast. I thought the story, it was a lot to put in. It was a lot of movie in two hours. But [Dr. Zachary Smith] was fun to play because it’s a villain with a tongue in the cheek or a little twinkle in the eye.”